Happy Halloween!

Thanks Auntie Sharon for the costume!


Julian and his friend Adrian in the zoo.


Jon made me do it.



Julian i-chatting with Grandma BB.


Julian asking for "more" i-chat kisses in sign language.

Men will be men...

So Jon comes home from music class with Julian tonight. Meanwhile I am at home slaving away, making cajun catfish dumplings and brown rice for us, kale, broccoli, butternut squash, chard, green beans, and carrots for Julian's food for the week (this includes cutting up some for later steaming, pureeing some in the blender, and packaging several meals...you get the picture.)

Ok, where were we? Right. Jon comes in and I ask how class was...

"Great!" He answered with a sparkle in his eye, "3 big things happened!"
"Did he walk?!" I knew it. Today while changing Julian's 4th diaper of the morning I thought to myself that it would be any day, and it would be for daddy.
"Unh Hunh...but know what else he did?" Before I could guess Jon proclaims with a giant grin, "He smacked the hot mom on the ass!"
My son took his first 3 steps and my husband is aflutter that Julian not only smacked a woman on the ass, but he even picked the hot mom.

Oh, the third thing was that Julian crouched in a squat during class- we've been hoping for this as it shows his balance is good and he won't be as likely to topple over from a standing position once he is walking. Apparently the walking in class today was an accident as Julian was being escorted back to daddy and just happened to let go before he toppled into Jon's arms. Maybe that's why the walking wasn't quite so exciting. The ass smack was premeditated and deliberate.

Sigh...





Jon high fives his very smart and capable son.

My Husband Mr. Poppins

Another busy week.

Julian is settling in with the new nanny, Aileah. She comes 3 mornings a week with her 16 month old Adrian. So far they have been here 3 times and Jon has been with them the whole time. This next week he'll start disappearing for an hour here and an hour there, and next will be Aileah trying to get JLEB down for his nap with Adrian in tow. Her son only does an afternoon nap so their naps will be staggered. This, I think, will be the trickiest part. We truly think she is lovely. Turns out she went to college for a few years at a school very near mine in MA. There were a few years between us though, cough cough.





Jon has started back at work on T/F, the days that Aileah and Adrian wont be here. Julian and I had a boat load of fun, although it looks like this means I'll have to be working doing paperwork, staffing, billing, etc at my office on the weekends again since I no longer have T/F to do that. I think after the new year some time we'll try to arrange some other help for a few hours on those mornings so the weekends will be exclusively for family.

The good news about my taking over on T/F though (other than, of course, I get to hang out with the cutest baby in the world) is that I realized that as a genetic XX instead of an XY I can hang with the baby and get the laundry done, house clean, food cooked, etc. Julian may get more undivided attention with his dad, but as my mother's daughter (sorry mom) I feel so much better with my house clean and tidy that being able to do this will help me feel more, well, sane.

The pot and wooden spoon kept him occupied for an entire sink and counter full of dishes. :) While carrying him in the sling I was able to get the laundry done for the house and my office. He found it hysterical, actually, when I pulled clothes out of the washer and threw them in the dryer. Anyone with other ideas for getting chores done with baby in tow, post a comment...I'm planning on elevating it to an art form.



Our morning activity today was Julian's 1 yr doctor's appt. His health is excellent, but the doc did give us a bit of a hard time regarding our choice to wait a bit longer before resuming his immunizations, as well as my desire to skip redundant blood work. She is pretty open minded but I'm sure it is a challenge to have a naturopath as your patient's mother so I'm trying to cut her some slack.



The wait was almost an hour after the baby was stripped down to his diaper so we did some playing in the hall. There was another patient there who was also waiting for her doctor and she was playing with Julian. She has a 6 year old and she told me that when she has another baby she wants it to be a boy because her husband is named Van. I looked at her blankly. She broke out in a huge grin and said, you know, we'll call him "mini Van." Hee hee. I love it.

Julian loved standing on the sill of this window...on the 9th floor of a building overlooking the river.





Two of my girlfriends from ND school were in town this weekend and we had a 4 hour dinner/chat fest last night. I woke up and my voice was hoarse. Debby gave Julian the cutest toy and new shoes, and Julian just plunked himself down in Laura's lap. That's new, the lap sit. We LOVE it.





And finally, Mr. Poppins...

In and Out

We just had a quick but lovely visit with Jon's parents for the weekend. In Thursday night and out tomorrow (early enough that they are spending the night at the Marriot.)

When Nana and Papa visited last we were still in the early stages of attachment, and we were still not having anyone but the two of us comfort, hold, and cuddle with the baby. We were very pleased to have moved on from that for this visit as Julian's attachment is coming along very well.



The boy is in love with Nana and Papa and particularly liked to cuddle up on his grandfather. Nana made him crack up continually. I got this all on video but not on camera.

One more time-
Anyone know how to get video from i-movie to blogger?
It's driving me batty that I can't figure it out.
Anyway...

Papa put together Julian's birthday gift when he got here. I am pretty disappointed because as you can see from these pictures, Julian really didn't like it very much.









He he...

Much to Update!!

Jon started to transition Julian into his new day care last week. Julian was loving it, and although it seemed a bit hectic, Jon was very excited about it. Well...after the second day, I arrived home from work to a very sad looking husband. Our provided had decided, after all, that she had taken on too many little ones. I was worried about this from the beginning but she was very confident it would be fine. It was not.

We gathered ourselves and had a talk. Time to begin the nanny search. Long story short, we ended up interviewing 2 lovely women on Sunday and one was a great match. She is available the days we need her, has a very similar child rearing approach to ours, and she will be bringing her 16 month old son with her. This is the perfect answer to our concern that Julian would not have enough time with other kids if we were to go the nanny route. We'll get a little help around the house, as well as the nanny part, which will help us out a great deal. I realized this fact when we had (turkey) hot dogs on spelt tortillas with rice cheese (no, really we did...) 3 times last week.

Overall, I am actually relieved with the way it worked out. I was pretty worried that there would not be enough close supervision with the first day care arrangement.
A big thanks to all my girls who put the word out and rallied to help us come up with a plan.

Julian's birthday weekend was hectic and so fun. My family was here and we had a small bagel-o-rama with a few of Julian's friends on Sunday.






(that's me and my sis...)

One of my closest friends, whom I have known since college, just adopted a baby from Portland, and spent much of last week in and out of the house while she and her husband were finalizing the paper work. The baby is beautiful, and has been named Zinnia. Welcome, Zinnia!!



And last, but NOT least, we finally got rid of the Jeep. For all of you that know us well, you know this has been a bit of a sore spot for, um, a while. My kind, wonderful, sweet, helpful husband, bought said Jeep from a friend that was moving and didn't have time to sell it. It was a "great deal" only $500. The catch was that it didn't run. The friend had driven it out of oil. However, being a classic and all (1985 Jeep Wagoneer with faux wood panels, a "Woody", who could pass that up?) Jon decided to have a new engine put in and then sell it. Well, he had it done, then wanted to drive it for a while, even though he also had another classic car...then we got married, then it started to have a few problems here and there...well, by the time "we" got around to trying to sell it, the Iraq war had started, gas prices were up, and no one would touch the car with a 10 foot pole (even though it got a whopping 9 miles to the gallon...really people, how LAME.) Then the tax law for donating cars for book value expired, and, and, and... the car sat in front of our house until tonight. We gave it to a Catholic charity that Sharon saw an add for in the paper. It goes to a needy family, and will actually be used, so we can write it off for the book value. So overall, we will only lose about $4,000 on the car. Lesson learned? We'll see...


B'bye!

5000 Orphans Initiative

Hello Friends and Family;

As many of you know, there were several scares during our process that adoptions might shut down from Guatemala. Well, for the families in process right now, the possibility has become a reality.

It is very true that the adoption system in Guatemala needs an overhaul to reduce abuses. That said, there are over 5000 children in process that may get left behind as the program closes to 'revamp.' It may take years for the system to be set up again, if at all. Although the US State Department has responded (late but better than never) to encourage the Guatemalan government to finish pipeline cases, the Guatemalan government has issued a formal statement that cases in process will NOT be grandfathered in under the current system.

Right now, waiting children are supported, placed, and processed by private entities. There is no social service system in Guatemala to support these children period, if the current system is dismantled.

These children need our help.

A family that has been matched with a baby and is mid process, has put together a website with information about what you can do. If you have a sec, please check it out, and perhaps sign a petition or contact your local representatives. www.5000orphans.com

Thanks for reading.